The Four Horsemen for the Colorado Mesa Wrestling team impressed everyone this past week in Alabama. Daniel Salazar led the charge as the fifth-year senior made his way into the semifinals before being displaced and finishing fourth.
Juaquin Olivas fought hard in his first appearance in the national tournament but ended up losing his only two bouts. Olivas lost his first-round matchup against Michael Labry who went on to win the whole tournament.
In the 165-pound bracket, Jason Buhr closed out his week with a 1-2 record. The 2016 RMAC Freshman of the year lost his first-round matchup against Isaiah White who eventually became the national champion, but Buhr did move to the consolation bracket and won his second match against Kade Kitchens from Shorter University by a 18-14 decision.
Buhr advanced in the consolation bracket with the win over Kitchens, but he ended up losing his second-round match against Jacobi Jones from CSU Pueblo by decision.
Bruno Nicoletti also competed in his first national tournament this past week. The redshirt junior fought hard against Minnesota State’s Adam Cooling in the first round but lost by a 3-2 decision.
Nicoletti transferred over to the consolation bracket where he lost his second match against Justan Rivera from Notre Dame.
Daniel Salazar competed in the 141-pound bracket, and the RMAC Champion moved his way to the semifinal match but lost to Darren Wynn from McKendree University.
Salazar moved to the consolation bracket and beat Joshua Alley from Central Oklahoma University to move to the third-place match. Salazar could not make it past Nick Crume from Indianapolis University, which caused him to take home fourth place honors.
This was Salazar’s third appearance in the national tournament, and, with the fourth place finish, he earned All-American honors.
The 141-pounder made it the furthest in the tournament out of all his teammates and he was able to close out his last year at Mesa earning fourth place honors on the national level.
Colorado Mesa placed 30th overall at the end of the week which is the third highest team out of all RMAC schools competing.
